Brewster Buffalo News

I see in Classic Wings and at the Annals of the Brewster Buffalo,
http://www.warbirdforum.com/buff.htm , that the Museum of Naval
Aviation has transferred the Brewster 239 BW-372 to the Finnish Air
Force Museum at Tikkakoski for a 5 year period. The Finns will finish
cleaning and preserving the aircraft and then complete the assembly of
the dismantled relic and return it to the condition it was in when
recovered from Russian Karelia about 1996. The transfer is in honor
of the 90th anniversary of the Finnish Air Force. There is a link,
http://www.pienoismallit.net/galleria/referenssi_3090/ , to a Finnish
modeling site that has some really fantastic pictures of this the only
surviving Brewster 239 and one of only two surviving Brewster
aircraft.

The aircraft is remarkably well preserved. I know the current trend
in restoration is to preserve aircraft as found but I think it is a
shame that the Brewster could not be fully restored to a condition
more representative of its service life. I would however not repair
the bullet and shell holes that downed the aircraft.

John Dupre'

On Apr 6, 1:08 pm, John wrote:
I see in Classic Wings and at the Annals of the Brewster Buffalo,http://www.warbirdforum.com/buff.htm, that the Museum of Naval
Aviation has transferred the Brewster 239 BW-372 to the Finnish Air
Force Museum at Tikkakoski for a 5 year period. The Finns will finish
cleaning and preserving the aircraft and then complete the assembly of
the dismantled relic and return it to the condition it was in when
recovered from Russian Karelia about 1996. The transfer is in honor
of the 90th anniversary of the Finnish Air Force. There is a link,http://www.pienoismallit.net/galleria/referenssi_3090/ , to a Finnish
modeling site that has some really fantastic pictures of this the only
surviving Brewster 239 and one of only two surviving Brewster
aircraft.

The aircraft is remarkably well preserved. I know the current trend
in restoration is to preserve aircraft as found but I think it is a
shame that the Brewster could not be fully restored to a condition
more representative of its service life. I would however not repair
the bullet and shell holes that downed the aircraft.

John Dupre'

Nice gesture. They have the Humu in full colors, so it would be nice
to just straighten the panels on BW-372, and preserve the paint
better, but that would be OK for me. Maybe someday I'll see her.

Vanwall wrote:
On Apr 6, 1:08 pm, John wrote:
I see in Classic Wings and at the Annals of the Brewster Buffalo,http://www.warbirdforum.com/buff.htm, that the Museum of Naval
Aviation has transferred the Brewster 239 BW-372 to the Finnish Air
Force Museum at Tikkakoski for a 5 year period. The Finns will finish
cleaning and preserving the aircraft and then complete the assembly of
the dismantled relic and return it to the condition it was in when
recovered from Russian Karelia about 1996. The transfer is in honor
of the 90th anniversary of the Finnish Air Force. There is a link,http://www.pienoismallit.net/galleria/referenssi_3090/ , to a Finnish
modeling site that has some really fantastic pictures of this the only
surviving Brewster 239 and one of only two surviving Brewster
aircraft.

The aircraft is remarkably well preserved. I know the current trend
in restoration is to preserve aircraft as found but I think it is a
shame that the Brewster could not be fully restored to a condition
more representative of its service life. I would however not repair
the bullet and shell holes that downed the aircraft.

John Dupre'

Nice gesture. They have the Humu in full colors, so it would be nice
to just straighten the panels on BW-372, and preserve the paint
better, but that would be OK for me. Maybe someday I'll see her.


When the aircraft is the sole surviving example I think it's proper
to restore it to as close to flyable as possible. I think it makes a
better presentation for those who aren't heavily into aviation history
to visualize. There are plenty of wrecks of other types to make a life
size diorama from.

Replicas don't do it for me. The Mercury capsule in the Navy aviation
museum at NAS Pensacola my be life size, but it's plastic. It's just not
the same.

Dan, U.S. Air Force, retired

The most striking part about those Finnish photographs of BW-372 is
how much the paint deteriorated since it was lifted out of the water.
There's a photo of the "Farting Elk" squadron logo, part of which was
greased, part not, and the difference is amazing. It's not clear
whether the deterioration took place in Ireland, where the plane was
hidden for three years until a deal was struck to swap it to
Pensacola, or at Pensacola itself, where the hurricane damage put
BW-372 to the bottom of the priority list. If at Pensacola, then
somebody ought to take the curator out and whip him. By the evidence,
the plane was in astonishing condition when it was recovered ten years
ago, and it is badly faded today. I'm delighted the Finns have got it,
and I hope they will be allowed to keep it forever, perhaps with the
occasional loan back to Pensacola so we Yanks can see it.

Blue skies! -- Dan Ford

Claire Chennault and His American Volunteers, 1941-1942
new from HarperCollins www.FlyingTigersBook.com

I see in Classic Wings and at the Annals of the Brewster Buffalo,
http://www.warbirdforum.com/buff.htm , that the Museum of Naval
Aviation has transferred the Brewster 239 BW-372 to the Finnish Air
Force Museum at Tikkakoski for a 5 year period.

Photos:

http://www.virtualpilots.fi/feature/...bw-372_photos/

jok

On Mon, 07 Apr 2008 11:11:09 -0400, Dan wrote:

When the aircraft is the sole surviving example I think it's proper
to restore it to as close to flyable as possible. I think it makes a
better presentation for those who aren't heavily into aviation history
to visualize

When BW-372 was at Pensacola and on track for restoration (before
hurricane damage to the museum put the Brewster on the back burner)
there was talk of giving it two paint jobs. It would be a USN F2A on
one side (presumably the starboard or right side, tee hee) and a
Finnish Air Force fighter on the other side.

Given that the FAF used a bent-leg cross, the hakaristi I think it is,
as its recognition signal, this would have given American viewers with
some slight knowledge of World War Two the astonishment of seeing the
same plane with an American star on one flank and an apparent swastika
on the other.

But that won't happen for the present. The Finns aren't going to
restore the plane. They're going to put it back together and protect
it from further deterioration, bless them. What a shame this didn't
start five years ago!


Blue skies! -- Dan Ford

Claire Chennault and His American Volunteers, 1941-1942
new from HarperCollins www.FlyingTigersBook.com

One thing I would like to know for sure. I remember hearing or
reading that after they arrived in 1940 the Finns replaced the USN
hard rubber tailwheel for a pneumatic tire with a wheel from a common
Finnish built wheelbarrow! Is that true or urban legend?

John

On Apr 7, 11:24 am, "Jukka O. Kauppinen"
wrote:
I see in Classic Wings and at the Annals of the Brewster Buffalo,
http://www.warbirdforum.com/buff.htm, that the Museum of Naval
Aviation has transferred the Brewster 239 BW-372 to the Finnish Air
Force Museum at Tikkakoski for a 5 year period.

Photos:

http://www.virtualpilots.fi/feature/...bw-372_photos/

jok

John wrote:

One thing I would like to know for sure. I remember hearing or
reading that after they arrived in 1940 the Finns replaced the USN
hard rubber tailwheel for a pneumatic tire with a wheel from a common
Finnish built wheelbarrow! Is that true or urban legend?

That would be one hell of an over-engineered wheelbarrow tire!

I can't imagine any wheelbarrow tire designed to withstand the impact of
two-and-one-half or more tons of aircraft hitting the tarmac at 75 mph.

Wheelbarrow tires are designed to support a couple hundred pounds or so
at speeds not exceeding a fast walk.

Cheers,

Hi!

That is certainly true.
The original tailwheel was too small and hard for use in the soft
Finnish airfields, it simply sunk into the field.
The replacement was a wheelbarrow wheel built by "Suomen Gummitehdas",
12*4 inch rubber wheel. Naturally the wheels were new and directly from
factory, not just robbed from poor old wheelbarrows.
At the same time also the tailwheel assembly changed completely, to
adapt it to the new wheel. The new tailwheel could now be turned and
controlled.
The change was ordered for all the Brewsters on 10.8.1940 as "very
important".
The new tailwheel assembl was 21,5 cm higher than the USN tailwheel, so
the landing run was longer than before.

Interestingly, mr. Erkki Pakarinen, a Brewster pilot from LLv24, told me
how he once burst his tailwheel. He was rolling to takeoff position and
had to turn 90 degrees. Unfortunately, he made a mistake with locking
the tailwheel and it got stuck on a piece of wood (or possibly tree
roots) in the airfield area, jammed and the wheel burst.
Erkki told me how he ended up standing stiff as a stick for 20 minutes
while his squadron's superior officed yelled to him face red along the
lines "where do you think we are getting new tailwheel for this plane?
The plane is now going to sit useless on the ground until we can fix the
tailwheel or get a new one".

They were situated in the very far east of Finnish frontier, in the
Finnish/Karelian wilderness, in the very far edge of the supply network,
as far from the repair depots as you could get... And there wasn't much
spares...

Sadly mr. Pakarinen died suddenly less than a year ago - and he seemed
to be in better condition than I am... He had fantastic memory and could
re-live all the things he had experienced, telling very detailed stories
and explaining any details of his Messerchmitts and Brewsters.

Watching him live through his aerial combats and experiences was amazing
- he was showing his hand movements in the cockpit, he could show how
the planes maneuvered in 3D space... A goldmine of information...

jok



One thing I would like to know for sure. I remember hearing or
reading that after they arrived in 1940 the Finns replaced the USN
hard rubber tailwheel for a pneumatic tire with a wheel from a common
Finnish built wheelbarrow! Is that true or urban legend?

John

On Apr 7, 11:24 am, "Jukka O. Kauppinen"
wrote:

I see in Classic Wings and at the Annals of the Brewster Buffalo,
http://www.warbirdforum.com/buff.htm, that the Museum of Naval
Aviation has transferred the Brewster 239 BW-372 to the Finnish Air
Force Museum at Tikkakoski for a 5 year period.

Photos:

http://www.virtualpilots.fi/feature/...bw-372_photos/

jok